Plantain root, others have potentials for treating diabetes
Diabetes is recognised as one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the world. It is a chronic disease with a substantial elevation in the circulating blood sugar.
The major mode of control of diabetes is usually by diet, exercise and insulin replacement therapy and by the use of herbal agents able to lower blood sugar level (hypoglycemic agents). Diet therapy along with insulin or oral hypoglycemic agent forms an important way of treatment in diabetes though it has several demerits.
The major drawbacks of insulin therapy are the side effects, which includes insulin allergy and insulin antibodies and other later complications with kidneys, eyes, feet , blood and blood vessels’ complications. Similarly, anti-diabetes drugs for diabetes have many side effects such as nausea and vomiting, jaundice, anemia, and skin.
Plants have been used for the major source of treatment of diabetes mellitus from ancient time in the Indian medicine and in the world.
The latest that was tried out involve the use of extract of Musa paradisiaca root (plantain) and Coccinia indica (climbing ivy gourd) leaves in separate and in composite manner to correct diabetes. This was reported in the latest issue of Afr. J. Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines.
M. paradisiaca is a tree like herb with thick stem composed of convoluted leaf sheaths. The plant’s root is use for de-worming purposes, the flowers are astringent, while the fruits are mild laxatives.
It aids in combating diarrhoea and dysentery and promotes healing of intestinal lesions in ulcerative colitis, a bowel disease. It is useful in celiac disease, constipation and peptic ulcer. Unripe fruit and cooked flower are useful in diabetes.
Coccinia indica is a climbing perennial herb of Cucurbitaceae family and it is distributed widely all over India. The root and leaves of this plant have antilipidemic effects as well as antioxidative effects.
The research lead by Debidas Ghosh from the Bio-Medical Laboratory Science and Management Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India highlighted the antidiabetic efficacy of aqueous-methanol extract of M. paradisiaca and C. indica. The study whicwh is the first to try the extracts of these two plants in the management of type-I diabetes mellitus, found that either in the separate or combined forms, it resulted in reduction in blood sugar levelin the rats used for the experiment.
From the comparative analysis, it was revealed that the extract of the studied plants when used in composite manner on streptozotocin-induced diabetic state had a more potent blood sugar lowering effect in comparison to using the individual extract of the plants.
The researchers concluded that this composite extract contains the active sugar – lowering agent (s) that can be used to overcome diabetic complication by pancreatic ß cell regeneration or stimulation of insulin secretion.
In another development, researchers said they have discovered that an ingredient found in some plants fights diabetes in mice without some of the side effects attributed to other anti-diabetes drugs.
The chemical they pinpointed, known as harmine, was first isolated more than 150 years ago from plants traditionally included in ritual and medicinal preparations around the world.
The work suggests a new approach for treating insulin resistance that might complement the use of pre-existing drugs and, more generally, provides validation for fat cell screens as a promising strategy for identifying new metabolic drugs, according to the researchers.
“The current explanation for this paradoxical mode of action is the idea that the body needs a place to store lipids,” said Peter Tontonoz, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Despite the efficacy, the development and clinical use of some other drugs is limited by adverse effects such as fluid retention, weight gain, congestive heart failure, liver toxicity, and potential cancer risks and therefore,the need for alternative approaches to treating insulin resistance.
Further study of harmine’s effects in diabetic mice found that the chemical increases insulin sensitivity in a manner similar to, the predominant antidiabetes drugs said the study. This was published in the May issue of the journal, Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. Source
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